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The St. Joseph Swing Bridge (also known as the St. Joseph Union Pacific Bridge and the St. Joseph-Elwood Bridge) is a Union Pacific Railroad truss Swing bridge connecting
St. Joseph, Missouri St. Joseph is a city in and the county seat of Buchanan County, Missouri. Small parts of St. Joseph extend into Andrew County. Located on the Missouri River, it is the principal city of the St. Joseph Metropolitan Statistical Area, which inclu ...
, and
Elwood, Kansas Elwood is a city in Doniphan County, Kansas, United States, located west across the Missouri River from Saint Joseph, Missouri. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 1,125. History A trading post was established at Elwood in ...
.


History

The first bridge on the location was built by the St. Joseph Bridge Building Company and cost $716,000 (of which St. Joseph had paid $500,000) and opened on May 20, 1873, with a crossing by the St. Joseph & Denver City Railroad. The original bridge had six piers with three spans of 300 feet, one fixed span of 80 feet on the east end and a draw span of 3,654 feet makin the total span of 1,345 feet. The opening of the bridge was reported: :This was beyond doubt the most brilliant pageant ever witnessed in the city. Not only was every civic association and benevolent society represented in the vast procession, but the German citizens of the north west had selected St. Joseph as the place for holding their annual Sangerfest on the same day. The procession which traversed the streets of St. Joseph, was never equaled west of the Mississippi. Every trade was represented. The cooper was hooping barrels in his improvised shop on wheels, the shoemaker was pegging at his last, the axhandle manufacturers were using their drawing knives, and turning out handles with the same celerity that marked their labors at home, lathes, looms, steam engines, collar factories, trunk establishments and an endless variety of other trades and appliances of mechanical labor, were in full blast, in the vast stream of human industry, that moved along the streets to the enlivening music of six or eight brass bands. The procession was fully six miles in length and both in the novelty of its character and the immensity of its magnitude, astonished even the people in whose midst the industries existed. At night hundreds of Chinese lanterns illuminated the structure. On June 16, 1879, the bridge was transferred to
Jay Gould Jason Gould (; May 27, 1836 – December 2, 1892) was an American railroad magnate and financial speculator who is generally identified as one of the robber barons of the Gilded Age. His sharp and often unscrupulous business practices made hi ...
and operated under the name of the St. Joseph & Grand Island Railroad Company (which was primarily used for the Union Pacific). The
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The railroad was chartered in February 1859 to serve the cities of Atchison and Topeka, Kansas, and ...
and
Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad (CRI&P RW, sometimes called ''Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway'') was an American Class I railroad. It was also known as the Rock Island Line, or, in its final years, The Rock. At the end ...
also had trackage rights to the bridge. The bridge still fell into disrepair and the city bonds were never paid off and it was sold to the bond holders for $5,000 in a foreclosure sale in 1901. The bridge was replaced with the current swing bridge in 1906. Union Pacific sold the bridge and its 108-mile line to Upland, Marshall County, Kansas, to
Railtex RailTex was a transportation holding company that specialized in owning and operating short line railroads across North America. Based in San Antonio, Texas, the public company was a leader in making unprofitable lines shed by Class I railroads ...
in 1990 operating it as the Northeast Kansas and Missouri Railroad (NEKM). Union Pacific bought it back in 1998 to use for returning empty coal trains going from Missouri back to Wyoming. However, Union Pacific was interested primarily in the tracks from
Hiawatha, Kansas Hiawatha (Ioway: ''Hári Wáta'' pronounced ) is the largest city and county seat of Brown County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 3,280. History Etymology B.L. Rider reportedly was responsible f ...
, to Upland. It subsequently abandoned the tracks between Elwood and Hiawatha although it still keeps ownership of the bridge and small rail spur to the west side of Elwood.KSDOT Elwood Map
/ref> The swing bridge is usually left in the open position.


See also

*
List of crossings of the Missouri River This is a list of bridges and other crossings of the Missouri River from the Mississippi River upstream to its source(s). Crossings See also * List of crossings of the Upper Mississippi River * List of crossings of the Lower Mississippi ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Joseph Swing Bridge Buildings and structures in St. Joseph, Missouri Buildings and structures in Doniphan County, Kansas Bridges completed in 1873 Bridges completed in 1906 Swing bridges in the United States Union Pacific Railroad bridges Railroad bridges in Missouri Railroad bridges in Kansas 1873 establishments in Kansas 1873 establishments in Missouri